Jean Prouvé ‘Standard’ dining chair for Vitra set/8
Seats are most heavily loaded on the back legs, which bear the weight of the person’s upper body on the chair. Engineer and designer Jean Prouvé illustrated this simple insight into his signature design for the Standard chair: tubular steel for the front legs is sufficient as they are relatively light loaded, but the rear legs are made of thick, hollow profiles that transfer the primary load to the floor. SP stand for ‘Siège en Plastique’. S chairs are the same but only the back and seat are in woodfinish.
This set of eight ‘Standard-S” chair has 3 seats and back in dark oak and 5 seats and back in the highly exclusive dark oak veneer, the frame is metal black powder coated. The set had been designed early 1934’s, but this set has been produced in 2015-2020. So they are barely used.
SP chairs are till in production. During World War II, Jean Prouvé responded to the limited supply of metal with a version made entirely of veneer and solid wood. So he did fit the design into the market of possibilities. This indicates the timeless design of the Standard chair.